Toutle and Butte Camp Trails work party
Date:
Sat, 07/18/2009 - 9:00am - Sun, 07/19/2009 - 3:07pm
The Mount St Helens Institute and NWTA will be holding a joint work party on the Toutle (238) and Butte Camp (238A)Trails on the south-west side of Mount St Helens on Saturday and Sunday July 18th and 19th. This can be a one or two day work party depending on what you are able to do! Please pre-register on line at: https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/ap?AP=1048631276&OR=1&Embedded=ON, or registration will occur between 9:00 and 9:15 a.m. on both days at Red Rock Pass, at the trailhead. We will finish around 3 p.m. on both days and will have optional camping (4 miles form the trail head) for Saturday evening. Backcountry car camping can also be done along Road 81. A great opportunity to bike camp, or back pack! If you need a b.o.b. trailer to haul your camping gear, please let me know.
Meet at the Red Rock Pass trailhead at 9:00AM each day. Follow State Route 503 North to the junction with Forest Road 83. Follow this road to the Cougar Sno*Park, continuing onto Forest Road 81 North. The road to the trailhead has extremely varied terrain - drive slowly, with caution, and consider using a 4-wheel drive vehicle with high road clearance, or park just west of the road to Climbers Bivouac and ride your bike the short distance to Red Rock Pass. See Mount St. Helens Recreation Map at http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/04maps/documents/MonumentTearmapFinalweb-2007.pdf
This will be a great opportunity to work on this very scenic underused trail with people who have a say in the management of the Monument! 
Upper Butte Camp Trail
Price: $0.00
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Upcoming Events
- Stub mountain bike night ride (easy/beginner) - 2012-02-09 18:00
- Stub trail building - XC - 2012-02-11 08:45
- Stub Freeride area build day [W.T.F.] - 2012-02-18 09:00
- NWTA Women's Ride - 2012-02-25 10:00
- Stub trail building - XC - 2012-02-26 08:45
Work Party Report!
About 17 - 20 people, one from as far away as Oklahoma, turned out for the joint Mount St Helens Institute - NWTA joint work party on the Butte Camp Trail. During the two day event sections of this very scenic and under used trail were repaired. It has been several years since this trail has seen much repair work. A culvert was repaired, as were gullied sections, including water bars and reverse grades installed to prevent continued erosion.
Three NWTA'ers just happened to be in the neighborhood (wink wink!) and were able to clear out downed trees and helped widen a very narrow sketchy section of the upper Butte Camp Trail. Ken Bonn of Evergreen came down to help out on this work party.
The Butte Camp Trail is a short connecting trail, connecting the Toutle Trail, off Red Rock Pass, with the Loowit Trail above Butte Camp Dome, a prominent dome on the south-west flank of Mount St Helens. Once the 2006 flood damage to the Toutle and Loowit trails is repaired the Toutle Trail, Sheep Canyon, Loowit, Butte Camp Trails will make an awesome loop trail for the adventurous mountain biker looking for some challenging riding conditions.
It was great seeing non-mountain bikers turn out for the event. It was unfortunate that this first joint weekend conflicted with Mountain Bike Oregon, but it was definitely a fun and productive weekend.
Saturday's Group Photo
Jerry, Andrea and Dave on upper Butte Camp Trail
The Toutle Trail crossing of this gully, deepened in the November 2006 floods, has yet to be repaired. When this crossing is repaired, along with at least three other washouts higher up on the mountain on the Loowit Trail, mountain bikers will be in store for an epic loop that will be more challenging than the more famous Ape Canyon/Smith Creek Loop to the east.